Information storage devices are used to retrieve and/or store data in computers and other consumer electronics devices. A magnetic hard disk drive is an example of an information storage device that includes one or more heads that can both read and write, but other information storage devices also include heads—sometimes including heads that cannot write.
The typical hard disk drive includes a head disk assembly (HDA) and a printed circuit board (PCB) attached to a disk drive base of the HDA. Referring now to FIG. 1, the head disk assembly 100 includes at least one disk 102 (such as a magnetic disk, magneto-optical disk, or optical disk), a spindle motor 104 for rotating the disk, and a head stack assembly (HSA) 106. The spindle motor typically includes a rotating hub on which disks mounted and clamped, a magnet attached to the hub, and a stator. Various coils of the stator are selectively energized to form an electromagnetic field that pulls/pushes on the magnet, thereby rotating the hub. Rotation of the spindle motor hub results in rotation of the mounted disks. The printed circuit board assembly includes electronics and firmware for controlling the rotation of the spindle motor and for controlling the position of the HSA, and for providing a data transfer channel between the disk drive and its host. The head stack assembly 106 typically includes an actuator, at least one head gimbal assembly (HGA) 108 that includes a head, and a flex cable assembly 110.
During operation of the disk drive, the actuator must rotate to position the heads adjacent desired information tracks on the disk. The actuator includes a pivot bearing cartridge 112 to facilitate such rotational positioning. One or more actuator arms extend from the actuator body. An actuator coil 114 is supported by the actuator body opposite the actuator arms. The actuator coil is configured to interact with one or more fixed magnets in the HDA, typically a pair, to form a voice coil motor. The printed circuit board assembly provides and controls an electrical current that passes through the actuator coil and results in a torque being applied to the actuator. A crash stop is typically provided to limit rotation of the actuator in a given direction, and a latch is typically provided to prevent rotation of the actuator when the disk dive is not in use.
In a magnetic hard disk drive, the head typically comprises a body called a “slider” that carries a magnetic transducer on its trailing end. The magnetic transducer typically comprises a writer and a read element. The magnetic transducer's writer may be of a longitudinal or perpendicular design, and the read element of the magnetic transducer may be inductive or magnetoresistive. In a magnetic hard disk drive, the transducer is typically supported in very close proximity to the magnetic disk by a hydrodynamic air bearing. As the motor rotates the magnetic disk, the hydrodynamic air bearing is formed between an air bearing surface of the slider of the head, and a surface of the magnetic disk. The thickness of the air bearing at the location of the transducer is commonly referred to as “flying height.”
Magnetic hard disk drives are not the only type of information storage devices that have utilized air bearing sliders. For example, air bearing sliders have also been used in optical information storage devices to position a mirror and an objective lens for focusing laser light on the surface of disk media that is not necessarily magnetic.
Since the flying height is a key design parameter that affects the performance of an information storage device, it is important that it not vary undesirably during operation. The flying height, and therefore the spacing between the transducer or objective lens and the disk surface, depends strongly on the design of the air bearing surface. Optimally the flying height would remain at a desired value, but that is not achieved in practical devices. Manufacturing variations changes in the operating environment, or changes in the position of the air bearing surface of the slider tend to cause undesirable changes in flying height.
One environmental factor that can cause an undesirable change in flying height is the ambient pressure of the atmosphere. The ambient pressure is lower at high altitudes than at sea level, yet an information storage device must be designed to operate in both environments. An air bearing that is designed to minimize the effect of this environmental factor on flying height is said to have enhanced “altitude insensitivity.”
An example of a manufacturing variation that can cause an undesirable change in flying height is the longitudinal out-of-plane curvature of the air bearing surface, commonly known as the “crown” of the air bearing surface. An air bearing that is designed to minimize the effect of this manufacturing variation on flying height is said to have enhanced “crown insensitivity.” Lateral out-of-plane curvature of the air bearing surface can also vary in manufacturing. An air bearing that is designed to minimize the effect of this manufacturing variation on flying height is said to have enhanced “camber insensitivity.” Such enhanced crown insensitivity and camber insensitivity also tends to reduce flying height variation due to curvatures that may be present in the spinning disk surface.
Another example of a manufacturing variation that can cause an undesirable change in flying height is the pre-load force (also known as “gram load”) that presses the air bearing slider against the spinning disk surface during operation. An air bearing that is designed to minimize the effect of this manufacturing variation on flying height is said to have enhanced “gram load insensitivity”.
An undesirable change in flying height can also result from a change in the linear velocity of the disk surface that is experienced by the air bearing slider during operation. Although the spindle motors that rotate the disk or disks in information storage devices are typically able to control the angular velocity of the spinning disk within a tight tolerance, the linear velocity of the disk surface at the outer diameter (OD) of the disk is typically much higher than the linear velocity of the disk surface at the inner diameter (ID) of the disk. As a result, the flying height may tend to vary depending on the radial position of the slider relative to the disk. An air bearing that is designed to minimize the effect on flying height due to a change in linear disk velocity is said to have an acceptably “flat flying height profile.”
The miniaturization of disk drives has exacerbated several of the challenges to air bearing design. For example, in so-called smaller “form factor” disk drives, the linear velocity of the disk at the ID is relatively low compared to that in larger disk drives. Smaller disk drives may also employ smaller recording heads, for example so-called “pico” sliders or “femto” sliders. Such sliders make available a smaller total footprint for the air bearing surface than larger sliders, and therefore confine air bearing design to a smaller physical space. The resulting reduction in slider length challenges air bearing designers to give the air bearing adequate pitch stiffness to resist applied pitch torques. The resulting reduction in air bearing width challenges air bearing designers to give the air bearing adequate roll stiffness to resist applied roll torques.
Head-disk interface tribological concerns, and robustness to mechanical shock events, has led to the widespread employment of a ramp (e.g. ramp 116 in FIG. 1) within the disk drive to unload recording heads from proximity to the surface of the disk when the disk drive is not in use. Ramp load/unload presents additional challenges to the air bearing designer. For example, to avoid damage to the disk surface during loading, it is important that the air bearing establish itself quickly despite any initial pitch bias and/or initial roll bias that would otherwise tend to bring the slider corners in contact with the disk surface. Furthermore, to facilitate unloading it is desirable that the air bearing allows the slider to be easily lifted off the slider from the disk surface (despite any negative pressure regions of the air bearing).
Therefore, what is needed in the art is an air bearing design that can provide an adequately flat flying height profile, for example in a small form-factor storage device utilizing ramp load/unload of the slider, and is adequately insensitive to one or more factors affecting flying height variation.